I don't know what I just read.... the plot was terribly disjointed, I felt like it was kind of all over the place, and not much happened that advanced an overall story.
I will say, I did not read book 1 or 2 in this series, so I don't have the back story, but I don't feel like that was the problem. I picked up on who all the characters were. But I kept finding myself suddenly confused, going back to the beginning of the chapter and re-reading to see if I missed something, and realizing I didn't. Things just kept jumping around. And although things happened, there were "major events" to the story, I don't feel like they really connected or did anything for character development.
For example, there's an entire two chapters about Vera planning this wedding (for characters we meet for about two pages, and barely see again). I thought the guy helping her plan it was going to play in somehow, or after the chapter all about him talking to the bride and groom about how much they needed to do, there would be something else - but there wasn't.
(Potential Spoilers)

I don't think enough character development was done to explain McCloskey falling apart over Quan. The story opens with him pulling Quan out of the river and helping him get a fresh start, but the two don't interact in any meaningful enough ways after that that would lead me to believe McCloskey would have a serious connection to him. I also felt like Campbell was presented as a socially awkward Detective trying to figure out the ins and outs of just talking to his co-workers, then the way I understood things was that he stumbles upon what he thinks is corruption on the force, and decides to try and uncover it, then after following the trail for a day or so, he tells the guy he's been on to him for years and has everything he needs to put him away. I don't know how we got there.
Murders kept happening that I expected to be solved in some way that really tied into the main story, but they didn't. One is just confessed to by a random guy, and the other is more explained than solved.
If the problem is that you need to read the whole series for the plot to make sense, I feel like the better thing to do would be to condense it down into one story or break it up in a way that at least gives each installment it's own sub-plot that gets resolved. I was just left feeling like there was no clear plot to this particular book.

My interest in historic border cities Detroit and Windsor got me reading Michael Januska's Prospect Avenue. Aware that it was part of a series, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was from the outset to pick up on the story line and established characters. This book feels to me like a mixture of different stories: there's the Good Criminal/Bad Cop mystery, the comic tale of a gruff romantic with hidden gastronomic skills, and an element of victimized Chinese immigrants. I would have appreciated all these coming together with a proper conclusion, rather than ending abruptly in a cliff-hanger; but I understand that's something other readers accept and even welcome. I thought there would be some significance to the repetition of "shards of ice floating on top" of things, but that didn't happen. Not completely devoid of the witty turn of phrase, "he occasionally used his words to take apart the living. A nurse once referred to it as verbisection" had me laughing out loud.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book. I was not aware this was in a series and was the third book. This is my first book by author Michael Januska. It was kinda hard to follow since I did not read the first two. Over all it was pretty good. Thank you again.

This book is part of a series. This is book three, I didn't read books one or two and I think it's necessary because I was totally lost. Possibly a good read, just not a stand alone.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley
All opinions are my own

Michael Januska's PROSPECT AVENUE brings to mind Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler--he offers the reader a world of likable villains and despicable cops---complex and totally topsy-survey. Januska's story is set in the "border cities" of Windsor Ontario and Detroit, Michigan---my home turf. Although PROSPECT AVENUE is on the Canadian side of the border, the police and criminal elements are plugged in to the action on both sides. It was fun for me to read about these towns during such a colorful period of their history. Januska does a great job of painting a vivid picture of the neighborhoods, the clubs, and the people.

I am a fan of classic noir fiction and this book took me into that world---so shady that the villains seem more human than the cops--and, the moral code is so complex that nothing is black or white.
This was an engaging and entertaining novel set in the Prohibition Era--so we are up to our elbows in bootleggers, speakeasies, and drug smuggling.

This is book #3 in a series. I unfortunately did not read the first two, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying. I love this era of speakeasys and bootleggers, pulls me in every time ! It was easy to pick up the characters and follow the story. Greatly enjoyed this one and I will be reading one and two very soon. Thank you NetGalley and to the publishers.